Life in a death trap

Aslamkhan Bhikankha walks up a crumbling staircase in the building where he lives on the outskirts of Mumbai. He used up all his savings and sold his wife's jewellery to buy an apartment here, but now he could lose it all.

The flat is inside one of many illegal buildings in Mumbra that house poor migrant workers and which now face demolition by authorities after the recent collapse of a seven-storey block nearby raised serious safety concerns.

11 Apr 2013. MUMBAI, India. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash

People walk past an illegal building that was demolished in the same area where the apartment block collapsed on April 4, killing 74 people and injuring 62. The site bares the unfortunate name, the "Lucky Compound".

A scarcity of cheap housing in Indian cities has led to rampant illegal construction by developers using cheap materials and shoddy methods in order to offer low-cost homes to low-paid workers, paying bribes to officials to turn a blind eye.

The lack of affordable housing is especially bad in Mumbai, which is both home to some of the world's costliest real estate and a place where an estimated six out of every 10 people live in slums.

10 Apr 2013. MUMBAI, India. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash

Reshma Ansari lost the only earning member of her family in the Mumbra disaster. Her 60-year-old brother-in-law, who earned about 10,000 rupees ($185) a month at a bakery, was selling bread in the building when it came tumbling down, as one witness said, "like a pack of cards".

Ansari, 20, lives with her husband and infant daughter in another illegal building because it is all they can afford. She said that the government should do more to make housing available.

5 Apr 2013. MUMBAI, India. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash

Rescue crews and local residents gather around the rubble of the apartment block that crumbled in seconds, instantly killing dozens of construction workers and their wives and children who had been living there.

Built in under two months with poor quality materials and without proper approval, it stood on forest land in an area where nine of 10 buildings are illegal, officials say.

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Slideshow

10 Apr 2013. MUMBAI, India. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash

Children stand in the hallway of an apartment in an illegal building very close to the site of the one that collapsed.

10 Apr 2013. MUMBAI, India. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash

A woman tends to a baby inside a flat in an illegal building in the area.

10 Apr 2013. MUMBAI, India. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash

Sania, another woman who lives in an illegal construction, sits underneath a washing line in her living room.

10 Apr 2013. MUMBAI, India. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash

An illegal building in the "Lucky Compound" stands in ruins after it was demolished.

10 Apr 2013. MUMBAI, India. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash

Illegal blocks several storeys high and painted in white stand in part of the Thane district on the outskirts of Mumbai.

4 Apr 2013. MUMBAI, India. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash

Rescue workers search for survivors at the site of the residential building that collapsed.

4 Apr 2013. MUMBAI, India. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

An injured woman is carried away from the scene on a stretcher.

4 Apr 2013. MUMBAI, India. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

Rescuers carry a child who also survived the collapse of the building.